Hi. We are a design/style LA based company specializing in mixing eclectic styles on moderate budgets. Also we have a strange amount of fun blogging about all our design and style adventures. Right now I’m happy to say that I’m Target’s home spokesperson, bringing accessible/stylish design to the masses.

Oh Joy Nursery/Office Makeover: the mountain wall mural

For Joy’s new nursery we wanted it to be really fun and reflect their happy personalities but since it was also their home office we couldn’t go ‘full crazy’. Wallpaper would have been fun but over the budget, but just painting the walls seemed boring. I thought about doing an overall pattern but then I met up with my friend, Pinterest, for inspiration and found some:

Many of you might remember how I wanted to do a mountain-scape backsplash in our kitchen, but I couldn’t seem to figure out how to make it work with tile – at least not in a way that would look good. But here it was not only doable but so easy. It would be near the crib area – making that area feel more happy and kid-like, while helping to delineated the two spaces. We did some renderings to show them what we were thinking.

This first rendering is a simpler version, and it could work, but it didn’t quite feel right:

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The second rendering had way more impact, felt more dynamic and allowed us to bring in multiple colors.

Oh an I haven’t talked about it yet, but we wanted to paint the bottom half of the room (where there was no mural) a color; almost like a horizon. The room was white already, but it was dingy and creamy and needed to be freshened up, anyway.

Bob requested more neutral colors and they both love grey and blue – clearly i’m no stranger to those colors, either. As far as picking the colors we brought all our paint decks and chose 7 or 8 that we liked. We got sample pots of all of them and then just went for it and sampled them on the walls. Ultimately we liked the strong blue has a ‘POW’ and then flanked it with a medium gray ad a more icy gray.

Click through to see the rest of the project:

I didn’t have much of a plan for the pattern besides the renderings – it’s not like I measured it or anything, mostly because I despise measuring. In full Emily style I just grabbed the tape and went for it and it was strangely easy. None of the mountains were the same size or height and we varied them as we went along. I look at all the intricate stencil-ing and patterned wall diy’s out there and I want to be that person, I really do, but meticulous isn’t my thing and if you aren’t careful you can seriously make a diy all look like garbage that a monkey drew. The sun was drawn with a thumbtack and a pencil tied to string which was attached to the thumbtack. We drew the perfect circle and then filled that bad boy in with a very bright and sunny yellow.

The whole thing took just one day. We painted the top white and the bottom gray, while I was taping up the pattern. We had Brady and Robbie helping, but Brady was busy doing other stuff, too, so I honestly think this project could take just 1 day even for one person. The tricky part is taking off the tape and then retaping it so you can paint over where the original tape was.

That is where we left it at the end of the day, but as I stared at the photos of it night I realized that while the nursery didn’t need to be gender specific I didn’t want all of the interweb to be emailing joy, saying ‘Did you have a boy ….’. Not everyone has such a modern view of colors as we do, and in traditional nursery style this did go a little more ‘boy’. So the next morning we came back and added that hot pink which did A LOT for the space, woke it up a big and made it feel totally happy and not gender specific.

Soooo glad you added the pink-it really makes it. I like all the inspiration pics and they are all one-dimensional, but it didn’t feel the same pre-pink. I especially love it on the mountain in the corner. Fab!

I know that a lot of people use stencils but I did it once and we had to paint over it – it was so incredibly time consuming that we didn’t have time to finish it (it was for the show). Our crew worked all night long and only finished 1/2 of it and it was sloppy, so we just painted over it. I know some people can do it, but i’m scared to try again. xx

Love the mountain mural. I was sad that you couldn’t make the mountains work as a backsplash, so I’m glad you got to revisit the idea here. I also love that the other walls have the faux-wainscoting. I wanted to do something similar but with chalkboard paint in my daughter’s nursery but my husband nixed it due to the potential mess of chalk dust.

I am totally doing this for my daughter’s room (she’ll be arriving in a few months)! Can I get the paint color for the pink please? Love your work, Emily!

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Emily is a stylist, author and T.V. host with a strong commitment to vintage inspired approachable home style for every single person. Perfection is boring; Let’s get weird. learn more

Interior Design Blog by Youxi988

I started this interior design blog in 2010 as a journal of my style and home projects with the belief that design should be approachable, informational and accessible no matter what budget.

As a home style expert who has a strong commitment to peeling back the intimidating layers of the world of home decor, and showing how every person can have a beautiful home that represents their personality, no matter what the budget.

After styling for magazines and catalogues for years, I started my own interior design blog, won HGTV Design Star, and have gone on to host my own hit TV show Secrets from a Stylist, Author the book STYLED, and create the design firm Youxi988 Design.

My motto has always been to write and publish on my blog what I personally want to read about.